SSKM lung transplant nod a breath of hope
Picture used for representational purpose only
KOLKATA: Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (IPGMER), better known as SSKM Hospital, has got a licence to conduct lung transplant, making it the first hospital in the state to get this licence.
The institute is now among the few in the country, even fewer in the government-run sector, that can conduct lung transplants. In fact, SSKM is the only hospital in the state to have licences for heart and lung transplants. The hospital received the green light for heart transplant surgeries about a week ago.
“With the licence for lung transplant surgeries received from Swasthya Bhavan on Tuesday, we now have the licence for both heart and lung transplant procedures,” said Dr Manimoy Banerjee, director, IPGMER.
The hospital had applied for the lung transplant licence weeks after it had applied for the heart transplant permission, about two months ago. A health department team inspected the facility about a week ago.
There are very few hospitals in the country that conduct lung transplant surgeries, most of them in Tamil Nadu. In the government sector, PGIMER Chandigarh made its first lung transplant only in July 2017, whereas the prestigious AIIMS, New Delhi, applied for a licence only in December 2018.
Both the heart and lung transplant units at SSKM will be at the cardiothoracic and vascular surgery department. Its cardio-thoracic surgeons had attended training for lung transplant procedures at a hospital in Delhi. They have been attending lung transplant workshops on a regular basis even while the licence was just applied for.
“The set-up for a lung transplant facility is the same as that of a heart transplant. It is the cardio-thoracic surgeons who perform the surgery, with a pulmonology team backing it up,” said Dr KM Mandana, cardiothoracic surgeon, Fortis Hospital Anandapur, who was part of the team that conducted eastern India’s first heart transplant.
“A lung transplant surgery is more complex than the transplant of other organs, with the risk of rejection and post-transplant infection being very high. And getting a fit lung could also be a huge challenge. It is good that SSKM has got the licence,” said Dr Partha Sarathi Bhattacharyya of Institute of Pulmonology and Research, Kolkata.
Even as the city is seeing a rise in organ donations, getting a fit lung can be tough: the donor has to be young and a non-smoker. S/he must also match the height of the recipient.
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